The present invention is directed to a device for applying optical energy to selectively remove metallized material carried upon a dielectric substrate. Generally a device such as is disclosed herein would be utilized to remove parallel lanes of metallized film from a dielectric material carrying that film such as "Mylar" for the purpose of further processing that film according to the method of U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 475,569, filed Mar. 15, 1983, to produce capacitive devices of the type disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 475,570 filed Mar. 15, 1983, both of which applications are assigned to the assignee of the present application. "Mylar" is a registered trademark of E. I. DuPont De Nemours & Company. Use of an apparatus such as the invention herein disclosed provides extremely significant savings in cost of manufacture of capacitive devices, which devices have evolved to be a virtual commodity item in the marketplace so that sales of those devices are heavily price-dependent. Thus, savings in cost of manufacture can provide flexibility to a capacitive device manufacturer to adjust prices to meet or beat competition in the marketplace without drastically affecting profit margins on those devices.